Bonkers Blog July 2013

These are
the views that Teresa O’Neill doesn’t want you to see. The only easily
accessible river bank in the whole of the borough is Riverside Gardens in Erith.
Teresa, not an exponent of nature’s beauty,
wanted to sell it off.

While it remains however, the people of Erith are pretty good at making use
of it. Six weeks after Garry Taylor came back with his
perennial Riverside
Festival there was more fun and community spirit to be had in the Gardens yesterday. Who
was responsible for it I have no idea because it was not well advertised and I stumbled
upon it almost by accident. Garry tipped me off with 24 hours to spare. Possibly
because of that or maybe because I arrived soon after opening time it was not as
crowded as one might have hoped.

Here’s a few photos to give you the flavour of things.

The
bouncy castle was looking somewhat deflated, a victim of Health and Safety issues
perhaps, maybe Criminal Records Bureau checks too. Erith’s
most visible export to London and beyond was exhibiting one of its
construction vehicles, this one bearing Crossrail markings and in the water the
Thames Barge Race was in its 150th year, not that there were any to be seen
between one and two o’clock.

Overall, not quite as lively as Garry’s effort.

Quite likely Hugh Neal will have some more interesting photos
on his blog later today.